As Australia continues its chilly start to winter, the country is in for five more polar blasts over the next two weeks. Forecasts predict the coldest start to winter in exactly 118 years.
Temperatures across the nation have been forced to fall by several degrees below the average for the month of June as a result of a significant influx of chilly air.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that later this week, even more, freezing weather will strike the southeast region, bringing with it brisk winds that originate directly from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The combination of these conditions and the cold, dry surge of air that will be coming in from the Southern Ocean will result in temperatures that will remain low until the weekend following the next one.
For the remainder of the week, Brisbane is expected to witness minimum temperatures as low as 6 degrees Celsius; this will mark the earliest start to June that Queensland city has experienced since 1904.
It is anticipated that the coldest of the five blasts will hit Tasmania on Saturday evening, and then move on to the mainland the following week.
Because the low-pressure system that is responsible for the freezing winds will move slowly, the icy conditions are expected to persist until the next weekend.
Consequently, major cities in the south-east of the country will have more days where it would be more comfortable to stay in bed with a doona, while Western Australia will experience significant rainfall as another low-pressure trough moves in from the west.
On Wednesday, temperatures in Sydney will be significantly lower than they were on Tuesday, with a low of just 6 degrees Celsius and a high of just 14 degrees.
On Wednesday, the high temperature in Melbourne is forecast to reach 12 degrees Celsius, which is an increase from Tuesday’s high of 11 degrees.
A cold front is pushing upwards from South Australia, and portions of the country’s southeast have already seen fresh dumps of snow as a result of this.
The unpleasant circumstances are a result of this. There will also be severe damage in certain areas of generally mild Queensland.
“Feels as” temperature in Toowoomba is expected to drop to as low as -5.4 degrees Celsius on Thursday morning, according to Weatherzone.
Other parts of southern Queensland are also expected to be affected by the cold weather.
This morning in Tasmania, residents of Launceston awoke to a chilling -1.6 degrees Celsius outside their homes.
According to Weatherzone, Sydney residents will experience the coldest string of days so early on in winter since 1989. These days will occur this week.
The coldest week of June in Melbourne since 1982 is expected this week, while Brisbane has not seen a week this early in winter this cold since 1904.
Chris Matthews, a forecaster for Weatherzone, warned residents of Sydney that they were in for a chilly week, with the highest temperature expected to be 17 degrees Celsius.